Cool, so Hibineko isn't yet another of his support NPCs come to life, but an actual player who died in the death game, and apparently got isekai'd to this seemingly real version of the game world. That nudges Shin's IRL situation a bit into the direction of "he died before he could logout" but that would be a terribly depressing reveal for the ending. An alternative idea is that at least some of the people who "died" in the death game didn't really die but were transferred to another game a la Alfheim Online.
Just as things were becoming a little stale the appearance of actual (former) players make this interesting again. As I understand it, Shadow and Holly woke up in this world also like Hibineko after they died in the game. But that happened before Shin cleared the game and freed the players. If they woke up there instantly after death they'd be over 500 years old now. But if not, then there's an unspecified amount of time that they didn't exist in any world until they woke up...
Best part is Schnee and Tiera hitchhiking on Yuzuha's summon. Boy, I didn't think that was possible, but that made me laugh. I LOVE that Schnee appeared hugging Shin. Perfect entrance. I guess I don't need to worry about Shin and Schnee being artificially kept apart for a long time again.
I suppose this elven lass is Shadow and Holly's daughter? If coming back to Earth is still an option like Shin hopes, this complicates things for them assuming they didn't actually die for real in the death game backstory. Unless bringing people from this world back to Earth is possible (this also opens the possibility of Shin bringing Schnee with him, or so I'd like him to at least try).